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Upcoming Hearthstone Nerf Could Shift Meta

In the next Hearthstone patch, scheduled for next week, Warsong Commander is receiving a huge nerf, which will destroy one of the game’s most powerful decks.

Currently, the Warsong Commander costs 3 mana for a 2/3 that also gives charge to any minion with attack power 3 or less. By itself, the Warsong Commander is incredibly weak for its cost and up until the Blackrock Mountain adventure it wasn’t terribly strong even when used with other cards. However, with the introduction of Grim Patron, the game completely changed.

At an expensive 5 mana, the Grim Patron is a 3/3 that summons a copy of itself every time it receives damage. When combined with the Warsong Commander, Whirlwind and Death’s Bite, a single Grim Patron can fill up a board with 3-attack charge characters. Furthermore, added Frothing Berserker to the mix, which gains power whenever a minion takes damage, and it’s entirely possible to kill a full-health opponent in one turn.

That’s all going to change next week. The upcoming change to Warsong Commander will now have the card read: “Your Charge minions have +1 Attack.” Not only does this replace an extremely powerful ability with one that’s barely playable, but it literally removes the Grim Patron deck from competitive play.

“Over the course of the short but impactful history of Hearthstone, we’ve taken a strong stance that we’d like to make changes to cards only when they are completely necessary,” posted Blizzard community manager Zeriyah. “In the case of Warsong Commander, we felt this change was necessary to help expand both future design space and to stand by our overarching game philosophy that battles between minions and fighting for board control is what makes Hearthstone fun and compelling.”

Unfortunately, it seems like instead of merely tweaking the play style of a very popular deck, they’ve removed all chance of it even working. Midrange Hunter received a huge nerf to Starving Buzzard and Unleash the Hounds last year, but the deck is still very playable. Fans have been divided over the change with many embracing it due to the potentially toxic nature of the Grim Patron combination, while others are saying the nerf is going too far.

Let us know what you think of the changes to Hearthstone’s Warsong Commander in the comments section!

About Nick Shively

Nick is an eSports and RPG enthusiast. He can normally be found in the deepest parts of a dungeon or in the arena slaying opponents. Nick has been a gamer since an early age and involved in the industry since 2011. He obtained a degree in journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2015.